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COMM

COMM 104W:Reporting, Writing, and Understanding the News

Techniques of news reporting and writing. The value and role of news in democratic societies. Gateway class to journalism. Prerequisite for all
COMM 177/277 classes. Limited enrollment. Preference to COMM majors.

COMM 106:Communication Research Methods (COMM 206)

(Graduate students register for
COMM 206.) Conceptual and practical concerns underlying commonly used quantitative approaches, including experimental, survey, content analysis, and field research in communication. Pre- or corequisite:
STATS 60 or consent of instructor. (Cardinal Course certified by the Haas Center)

COMM 120W:Digital Media in Society (AMSTUD 120, COMM 220)

Contemporary debates concerning the social and cultural impact of digital media. Topics include the historical origins of digital media, cultural contexts of their development and use, and influence of digital media on conceptions of self, community, and state. Priority to juniors, seniors, and graduate students.

COMM 124:Lies, Trust, and Tech (COMM 224)

Deception is one of the most significant and pervasive social phenomena of our age. Lies range from the trivial to the very serious, including deception between friends and family, in the workplace, and in security and intelligence contexts. At the same time, information and communication technologies have pervaded almost all aspects of human communication, from everyday technologies that support interpersonal interactions to, such as email and instant messaging, to more sophisticated systems that support organization-level interactions. Given the prevalence of both deception and communication technology in our personal and professional lives, an important set of questions have recently emerged about how humans adapt their deceptive practices to new communication and information technologies, including how communication technology affects the practice of lying and the detection of deception, and whether technology can be used to identify deception.

This course examines the theory and practice of deliberative democracy and engages both in a dialogue with critics. Can a democracy which emphasizes people thinking and talking together on the basis of good information be made practical in the modern age? What kinds of distortions arise when people try to discuss politics or policy together? The course draws on ideas of deliberation from Madison and Mill to Rawls and Habermas as well as criticisms from the jury literature, from the psychology of group processes and from the most recent normative and empirical literature on deliberative forums. Deliberative Polling, its applications, defenders and critics, both normative and empirical, will provide a key case for discussion.

COMM 153A:What The 2018 Elections Told Us And How They Help Us See How Campaigns Can Win In 2020 (COMM 253A, POLISCI 72, PUBLPOL 146, PUBLPOL 246)

(Same as
LAW 7057). The frequency of American elections means that we¿re never that far away from the next contest. This course is situated shortly after the conclusion of the 2018 midterm elections at the very start of the invisible primary that precedes the 2020 presidential campaign. It will provide students with a behind-the-scenes understanding of how campaigns work. Each week, we will explore a different topic related to high-profile campaigns -- policy formation, communications, grassroots strategy, digital outreach, campaign finance -- and feature prominent guest speakers who have served and will serve in senior roles on both Democratic and Republican campaigns. Our goal is to discern the lessons learned from the 2018 midterm elections, and how they will inform our understanding of what will happen in the 2020 presidential contest

This course examines the theory and practice of American campaigns and elections. First, we will attempt to explain the behavior of the key players -- candidates, parties, journalists, and voters -- in terms of the institutional arrangements and political incentives that confront them. Second, we will use current and recent election campaigns as "laboratories" for testing generalizations about campaign strategy and voter behavior. Third, we examine selections from the academic literature dealing with the origins of partisan identity, electoral design, and the immediate effects of campaigns on public opinion, voter turnout, and voter choice. As well, we'll explore issues of electoral reform and their more long-term consequences for governance and the political process.

Focus is on how politicians and government learn what Americans want and how the public's preferences shape government action; how surveys measure beliefs, preferences, and experiences; how poll results are criticized and interpreted; how conflict between polls is viewed by the public; how accurate surveys are and when they are accurate; how to conduct survey research to produce accurate measurements; designing questionnaires that people can understand and use comfortably; how question wording can manipulate poll results; corruption in survey research.